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FBI Probes Fire, Anti-Arab Graffiti Near Mosque

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DEARBORN (WWJ/AP) – The FBI says it’s investigating a possible bias motive for a fire and anti-Arab graffiti targeting a building associated with a mosque in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday asked the FBI to look into the vandalism.

The Muslim rights group says obscene graffiti with the word “Arabs” was discovered along with an apparently intentionally set fire at a community center associated with the nearby American Muslim Center.

Detroit FBI spokesman Simon Shaykhet says his agency is joining state and local authorities looking into the attack. He says the FBI takes bias crimes “extremely seriously.”

Dearborn has many Muslim residents and is the center of the region’s large Arab-American community.